A mouth that looks like an asshole expanding to sucking up feces and chunks of corpse. Kinda like a Trumpanzee.
brucejsays
That looks like a very VERY disturbing Muppet.
Callinectessays
The original Butthead.
Michaelsays
Reminds me a bit of Hallucigenia. Convergent evolution?
Tethyssays
It’s grazing hood is quite the adaptation. The appendages are the most fascinating part IMO. They alternate rather than being opposite, and are used for walking, which is most unusual in an animal that commonly swims or glides around like a snail.
anchorsays
@#4 – That was my immediate thought. It gives an inkling of how Hallucigenia may have gone about doing business.
WhiteHatLurkersays
The don’t kiss each other, do they? Just asking.
A. Noydsays
It’s a sea-butt eating with its hemorrhoids.
wzrd1says
Interesting, indeed fascinating animal. But, I still love the cone snail.
Slow as a snail, fast with its hypodermic barb, faster still with the amazingly complex venom that’s a highly active field of research.
Super fast acting insulin, fast acting calcium channel blocker, opioid receptor antagonist and more, all in a rather small package.
Whenever someone tries to tell me about the evils of chemical warfare, I gently remind the speaker that humanity are rank amateurs, compared to nature. Where chemical warfare is waged by microorganisms up through plants and throughout the animal kingdom as well. But, unlike in nature, humanity is more indiscriminate with their usage.
Interestingly, the cone snail venom’s components seem to target specific receptors, with surprisingly narrow specificity. That’s given researchers a handle up for new treatments, ranging from specific calcium channels to blockade, a new opioid 1000 times more potent than morphine (that’s a big deal for a number of conditions, but critical for those in the final stages of cancer) and even treatments for mental illness entering into the testing pipeline.
And for what we cannot yet synthesize in appropriate quantities (or at all), science has learned how to “convince” old friends to craft for us. My wife takes a long acting insulin, produced by genetically modified e. coli. Other drugs are produced by various yeasts.
The advances witnessed over the course of my life never cease to amaze me!
Still no flying cars yet, but that’s OK with me. The way they drive on the ground, I’d fear what they’d do overhead!
Very cool. Maybe I’m wierd (OK, well I am :-), but at times in its shape-changing, it reminded me of a male organ swallowing things up the urethra. Thinking that brought to mind that female god from Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” that similarly swallows a human male while having sex with him. Gaiman is good at being scary when he wants to be!
Renésays
The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Seriously, what’s the point?
davidc1says
That is the product of a sick mind ,if i didn’t believe in the theory of Evilution ,i think that would convince me .
Ichthyicsays
imagine trying to figure out how this thing worked, if all you had to go on was a fossil impression in a rock.
no thanks.
argentatasays
Every time I see this picture, I think it must be misidentified and ask the local biologist to tell me wtf it is. Nope, it IS a nudibranch. It just doesn’t look anything like any nudibranch I’ve ever seen.
A mouth that looks like an asshole expanding to sucking up feces and chunks of corpse. Kinda like a Trumpanzee.
That looks like a very VERY disturbing Muppet.
The original Butthead.
Reminds me a bit of Hallucigenia. Convergent evolution?
It’s grazing hood is quite the adaptation. The appendages are the most fascinating part IMO. They alternate rather than being opposite, and are used for walking, which is most unusual in an animal that commonly swims or glides around like a snail.
@#4 – That was my immediate thought. It gives an inkling of how Hallucigenia may have gone about doing business.
The don’t kiss each other, do they? Just asking.
It’s a sea-butt eating with its hemorrhoids.
Interesting, indeed fascinating animal. But, I still love the cone snail.
Slow as a snail, fast with its hypodermic barb, faster still with the amazingly complex venom that’s a highly active field of research.
Super fast acting insulin, fast acting calcium channel blocker, opioid receptor antagonist and more, all in a rather small package.
Whenever someone tries to tell me about the evils of chemical warfare, I gently remind the speaker that humanity are rank amateurs, compared to nature. Where chemical warfare is waged by microorganisms up through plants and throughout the animal kingdom as well. But, unlike in nature, humanity is more indiscriminate with their usage.
Interestingly, the cone snail venom’s components seem to target specific receptors, with surprisingly narrow specificity. That’s given researchers a handle up for new treatments, ranging from specific calcium channels to blockade, a new opioid 1000 times more potent than morphine (that’s a big deal for a number of conditions, but critical for those in the final stages of cancer) and even treatments for mental illness entering into the testing pipeline.
And for what we cannot yet synthesize in appropriate quantities (or at all), science has learned how to “convince” old friends to craft for us. My wife takes a long acting insulin, produced by genetically modified e. coli. Other drugs are produced by various yeasts.
The advances witnessed over the course of my life never cease to amaze me!
Still no flying cars yet, but that’s OK with me. The way they drive on the ground, I’d fear what they’d do overhead!
Imagine if cows did that.
Very cool. Maybe I’m wierd (OK, well I am :-), but at times in its shape-changing, it reminded me of a male organ swallowing things up the urethra. Thinking that brought to mind that female god from Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” that similarly swallows a human male while having sex with him. Gaiman is good at being scary when he wants to be!
The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Seriously, what’s the point?
That is the product of a sick mind ,if i didn’t believe in the theory of Evilution ,i think that would convince me .
imagine trying to figure out how this thing worked, if all you had to go on was a fossil impression in a rock.
no thanks.
Every time I see this picture, I think it must be misidentified and ask the local biologist to tell me wtf it is. Nope, it IS a nudibranch. It just doesn’t look anything like any nudibranch I’ve ever seen.